124 practical time-management tips

Up the tempo!

Set stretch targets for skill activities e.g. Goal: Win 3 points from my drop-shot in this set of tennis.

Set lots of mini-deadlines.

Play the game of trying to see how much you can accomplish in a given time.

Use good time-management tools

If you do a lot of writing or computer work, use two monitors. One is not enough!

Use a headset for phone or hands-free phone.

Get yourself a large storage unit and fill it with household objects organized in alphabetical order. B = batteries; U = umbrella, etc. it’s a good system for storing and finding stuff.

Get a kitchen timer. Set it to go off in 25 minutes (or whatever). Then work flat out on a task without stopping until the timer goes off.

Get yourself a standing desk so you can alternate between sitting and standing while working. You may work better standing!

Buy and learn to use voice-recognition software.

Wear a golfer’s counting watch and click the counter every time you catch yourself working well or finishing something.

Use Google Calendar; this way, if you have a smart phone, you’ll always have your calendar with you. And you can set Google calendar to alert you when events are coming up.

Find a random signal generator and get it to beep you every 15 minutes or so to remind you to check how you’re working e.g. “Am I using my time well right now?” I created a simple random signal generator by inserting signals into a multi-hour audio file.

Eat regularly throughout the day to keep up your blood glucose level, especially while doing cognitively or emotionally demanding activities.

Conquer procrastination

Do your ugliest task of the day first. That way, the rest of the day will feel great. (This is is called “Eat the toad first”!)

If you’ve been putting off doing a dreaded task for a long time and you catch yourself wanting to do it, stop everything and do it! Strike while the iron’s hot!

Develop a “getting started” ritual. For example, take three deep breaths, visualize yourself doing all the steps to complete the task ahead of you, and then say “Let’s go!”

If you become immobilized with fear, work out a routine that works for you to get yourself moving on it again (!)

﻿﻿If there’s something that needs to be done and you catch yourself having procrastinating thoughts about doing it, think about what procrastinating thoughts you’re telling yourself and write them down. Sometimes, awareness of how silly you’re being and the chore and shame of having to write those excuses down might be enough to get you to do what you’re wanting to put off.

Write down the things you procrastinate about as they happen. This way you can learn what things you procrastinate about and why.

Divide and conquer. Apply the salami technique. Break down overwhelming or unpleasant tasks into bite-sized pieces.

Settle for “good enough” instead of “perfect” more often.

Cunning strategies to manage time-wasting phone calls

Call at inconvenient times e.g. meal times or just before lunch and end of day when phoning people who trap you into long conversations.

Stand up when calling someone who might entice you into prolonged conversation.

Rote-learn conversation escape lines: “I’d love to keep chatting, but I’ve got some people waiting outside to see me.” “I’m working to a deadline right now. Can I call you later?”

Automate things/create automatic habits

Work hard to create automatic habits and routines e.g. have a “first thing in morning” routine, a ‘getting ready to give a presentation” routine, etc

Set implementation intentions to create automatic habits. For example, “If I am going up the stairs, I will run up.” “If I’m about to phone someone for a catch-up chat, I will spend a few moments beforehand thinking about what they’ve been up to and what to ask them about.”

Work hard to create productive habits that will repay you handsomely for your trouble the rest of your life. (High return on investment!)

Practice making routine decisions easily. Work out effective strategies beforehand e.g. pick the restaurant with easy parking or is likely to be quiet, toss a coin if I can’t decide, etc.

Be aware

Be aware of how you’re spending your time. Regulary pull yourself out of unconscious mode into conscious mode.

Set up a random signal generator to beep you every 15 minutes or so as a cue to check whether you’re spending your time wisely right now.

Try not to interrupt others if busy working. Find a time that suits you both.

﻿Be fully focused: focus your energy and attention on just one thing at a time.

Always ask yourself: “Is there a better way to do this?”

Break your day into 10-minute segments and see how few 10-minute segments you can waste (Ingvar Kamprad’s idea).

Focus your energy and time on things you can control and learn to ignore things you can’t control.

Work out effective strategies beforehand e.g. prefer quiet restaurants, arrive before rush hour, arrive at cinema early enough to choose good seats, etc.

Spend a few moments at the end of each day savoring the good moments. Not only will you have the pleasure of re-living these good moments, but the act of recalling them will help lock them into your long -term memory.

Schedule time wisely

Identify your most creative time, protect it, use it well, and defend it ruthlessly.

Get up 15 minutes earlier than usual and see if you miss the sleep. Give yourself two weeks to adjust before deciding.

Identify your cognitively dead times at work, and schedule easy tasks during this time e.g. exercise, phone calls, meetings, etc

Read intelligently

Read selectively. You can waste a lot of time mindlessly reading stuff.

Apply what you read. Otherwise, what’s the point of reading it?

After you’ve been reading for a while, stop and recall what you’ve read. Then check what you’ve forgotten. This is painful to do, but it helps to lock in the key points into your memory.

Before reading a lengthy document, write down what you’re hoping to find out. Setting the intention will help your brain spot relevant information when it appears and ignore the other stuff.

Master time-saving skills

Learn how to type.

Learn how to concentrate.

Learn how to communicate well.

Learn how to make routine decisions quickly.

Learn how to coach others well. Don’t re-do your subordinates’ poor work for them; teach them how to do their work the way you want them to do it.

Learn how to create good habits that will repay you a thousand-fold and stop bad habits that cost you big time when added up over time.

Learn how to get your children to be helpful, contributing members of the house.

Learn how to estimate accurately how long a task will take. Before starting any task, estimate how long you think it will take; then see how accurate you were. You’ll soon get much better at estimating how long things take in real life.

Manage other people well

Give really clear instructions to others about what you want.

Ask people when they write to you to “open with their news” ( i.e. begin with their key point); this way you won’t have to read most of the document in a vacuum. If the report is longer than 4 pages, insist on an opening executive summary.

Get people in meetings to focus on the question: “What is the next action we need to take?”